The Tuskegee Airmen, also commonly referred to as the Red Tails, were a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II. These airmen were renowned for their fight against racial prejudice through their exploits in World War II. Despite their struggles against racism, they managed to prove the white mentality wrong with their great successes, such as never losing a single bomber under their escort against enemy fighters. Regardless of their skill, these black airmen returned to their country to find that white attitudes were unchanged and joined another fight in an effort to desegregate their military. Booker T. Washington's philosophy of peaceful but persistent confrontation influenced how the Tuskegee Airmen challenged racial barriers within the U.S. military. The Tuskegee Airmen, while simultaneously earning the respect of whites, also reformed the image of blacks in the military. During the early 20th century, white Americans conducted many studies on blacks that concluded that blacks were a mentally inferior subspecies of the human race with smaller brains than those of whites. Using this “scientific knowledge,” whites assumed that aviation technology was simply too prodigious for blacks and that blacks had an innate fear of flying. During the early part of the twentieth century, many whites in the military were convinced that African Americans "did not have the mental capacity, aptitude, and reflexes" to fly airplanes; a misunderstanding very far from the truth. Indeed, several black men across the nation had mastered many of the key technological aspects of flight. There were many black aviators among the first fliers of transcontinental flights. For example James Banning, who learned to fly from a... medium of paper... the rush to fly and that drive to prove to many that they were truly capable of flying. Although they achieved many honorable accomplishments, the Tuskegee Airmen were still subject to racism. Their fighting background forced many to remain silent because they were better than many whites. Bomber crews in particular often requested them as escorts, because they had a greater chance of survival, but beyond that other units continued to harass these airmen. Even though white people didn't like the Tuskegee Airmen, they had no choice but to respect them because they were the best around. This is what Booker T. Washington wanted. His message was that it was not the time to challenge Jim Crow segregation but instead to fight in silence and force white people to respect you. In this way the Tuskegee Airmen earned the respect of whites and slowly but surely reshaped the image of blacks in the military..